WESTON - A technology repair business. A battery that recharges itself using magnets and a heat generator. A bracelet company that gives a portion of its profits to the charity of the buyer's choice.

These are just some of the ideas brewing at this year's Young Entrepreneurs Academy, a program that takes middle and high school students out of the classroom and provides them with real-world business knowledge.

The Young Entrepreneurs Academy was born at the University of Rochester in New York in 2004. Locally, the program is put on by the D.C. Everest School District and Wausau Region Chamber of Commerce.

This year, for the third time in a row, Wisconsin placed last in the country for startup activity, according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. David Eckmann, president and CEO of the Wausau Chamber, said it's important to cultivate entrepreneurship in the community and said the Young Entrepreneurs Academy helps identify those with an entrepreneurial spirit early on.

"We have to continue to foster the future business growth of our community, and that’s what this is really about," he said.

The Young Entrepreneurs Academy kicked off its third year in the Wausau area earlier this month with an orientation night at D.C. Everest Junior High, where parents joined their children to learn more about the after-school program.

Allen Kramer, 14, a student at the Idea Charter School, heard about the Young Entrepreneurs Academy through a friend and said he was amazed by what his friend was able to accomplish.

"I heard it was a risk and it was something new, and I really enjoy novelty," he said. "I really wanted to try this innovative new thing that a lot of people at my school were talking about."

Over the course of the year, students will meet weekly and learn how to develop their business ideas with the help of mentors, guest speakers and field trips. Later on, they'll have the opportunity to pitch their business to an investor panel for funding and participate in the Chamber's Business Expo.

Program coordinator Lukas Lindner, who graduated from the Young Entrepreneurs Academy in 2016, said it provides students with skills they can't learn from a textbook.

“Doing it and learning how to do it and not being afraid to fail is what this program can truly teach these kids," he said.

Many of the students who opt to join the Young Entrepreneurs Academy come from D.C. Everest Junior High, where Jim Dahlgren teaches a class called Today's Business to eighth graders. Students in the course are required to write and present a business plan to their classmates. If they decide they want to try to get funding for their idea, they can pitch it to a "Shark Tank" investor panel supported by donated funds from the community.

Dahlgren said the Young Entrepreneurs Academy sees a lot of students who participated in Shark Tank and want to continue developing their business idea.

One such student is Ian Luedke, 14. He took Today's Business last year and pitched a technology repair business to the Shark Tank panel. When they liked his idea, he said, he wondered how far he could take it and decided to give the Young Entrepreneurs Academy a try.

"I thought it was pretty neat how you would get to talk and communicate with ... a whole bunch of business owners who are taking time in their day just to see you and help you," he said.

This year's class currently has 15 students. Lindner said many students find their way to the program through referrals, whether from a teacher or another student.

Despite the heavy involvement from D.C. Everest students, Dahlgren emphasized that the Young Entrepreneurs Academy is open to all public and private school students in the Wausau area who are in sixth to 12th grades. Dahlgren said they look for students who enjoy coming up with ideas and who are willing to take a risk and put in some extra work.

“They don’t have to be a straight-A student to come up with a business idea and work hard towards it, so it’s really a possibility for just about anybody that has a little bit of drive and an idea," Dahlgren said.